According to two polls, President Donald Trump won’t go away if GOP voters have their way. He won’t rule out a 2024 run, either.
About 59% of GOP voters told Morning Consult and Politico they want Trump in a significant role in the Republican Party. However, 75% of GOP voters polled by Quinnipiac University said the same thing.
It’s a shame the polls took place before Trump tore apart Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and the GOP.
Trump told Newsmax’s Greg Kelly he won’t say anything about 2024 yet, but…:
“I won’t say yet, but we have tremendous support,” Trump told “Greg Kelly Reports.” “And I’m looking at poll numbers are through the roof.”Trump joked to host Greg Kelly that even the Senate impeachment trial managed to boost his 2024 political cachet.”I’m the only guy who gets impeached and my numbers go up,” Trump said. “Figure that one out.”Let’s say somebody gets impeached, typically your numbers would go down. They would go down like a dead balloon.”Trump was acquitted Saturday by the Senate for the second time in just over a year.”The numbers are very good; they’re very high; I think they’re higher than they were before the election, and they were high at the election,” Trump marveled. “They like the job – we did a great job.”
From the press release (emphasis mine):
Two days after the U.S. Senate voted to acquit former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial, three-quarters of Republicans say, 75 – 21 percent, that they would like to see Trump play a prominent role in the Republican Party, according to a Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pea-ack) University national poll of 1,056 adults released today. Overall, Americans say 60 – 34 percent that they do not want Trump to play a prominent role in the Republican Party. Democrats say 96 – 3 percent and independents say 61 – 32 percent they do not want to see Trump playing a prominent role in the GOP.A majority of Americans, 55 – 43 percent, say Trump should not be allowed to hold elected office in the future. Republicans say 87 – 11 percent that Trump should be allowed to hold elected office in the future.”He may be down, but he is certainly not out of favor with the GOP. Twice impeached, vilified by Democrats in the trial, and virtually silenced by social media… despite it all, Donald Trump keeps a solid foothold in the Republican Party,” said Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy.
Between February 11 and 14, Quinnipiac asked people if they thought the Senate should convict Trump.
The answer came out partisan, but the independents were pretty close since 50% said yes and 44% said no. That helped tip the overall American results to only 51% to 44%.
Malloy said, “The history books may recount the Senate choosing not to deliver a lethal blow to Trump’s political career. But the second paragraph may well underscore the voting public’s willingness to let that happen.”
The question about Trump on January 6th came the closest to dividing the Republicans (emphasis mine):
Nearly 7 out of 10 Americans (68 percent) think that Donald Trump did not do everything he could to stop the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, while 25 percent say he did do everything he could to stop it.Republicans say 56 – 34 percent that Trump did everything he could to stop the insurrection. Democrats say 94 – 6 percent and independents say 70 – 23 percent that he did not do everything he could to stop the insurrection.”Did the former president drop the ball on controlling the insurrection? Most assuredly, say the majority of Americans, fresh off hearings that brought visual proof of the mayhem on January 6th,” added Malloy.
From Morning Consult:
Compared with another survey conducted immediately after the Jan. 6 events, the share of GOP voters who said Trump should play a “major role” in the Republican Party has increased 18 percentage points, to 59 percent, continuing an upward trend that started before the Senate trial began. By comparison, just 17 percent said he should play no role at all, at odds with the expectations of some Republican officials, such as Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), that the trial would spell the end for Trump.The base’s increased appetite for the former president’s continued presence on the political stage came as Republican voters became less likely to blame Trump for the events that led to the riot.
A month later, fewer GOP voters blame Trump for the riots on January 6th, 21% compared to 41%.
It’s important to note that the blame on the rioters went up in all three categories: all voters, Democrats, and Republicans.
Blame on Trump only went up 1% among all voters from 63% to 64%.
However, Trump’s impeachment trial did not change many minds about the House’s impeachment vote:
Fifty-eight percent of voters — including 52 percent of independents and nearly 1 in 5 Republicans — said they approve of Trump’s impeachment, roughly matching the share who said the same after the House’s Jan. 13 vote.Additionally, 51 percent of voters, including 76 percent of Democrats and nearly half of independents, said they disapproved of the Senate’s acquittal of Trump. Seventy-nine percent of Republican voters approve of the Senate’s acquittal.Republican senators who supported Trump’s conviction, such as retiring Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina and Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who was just re-elected in November, have faced fierce criticism from their state parties for their votes, echoing the Wyoming Republican Party’s move to censure Republican Rep. Liz Cheney after she voted for Trump’s impeachment.Amid Republican lawmakers’ attempts at distancing themselves from Trump and the general bad news for the Republican Party in recent weeks, the share of its voters who said the GOP is heading in the right direction has fallen 5 points since immediately after the Capitol riot, to 46 percent.
It looks like Trump is here to stay, or at least his ideas.
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